Word: glubb
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Dates: during 1940-1949
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...hold Abdullah to this more modest plan. Said a British official in Amman last week: "The Legion will be very prudent. We want no wild adventures." Britain's subsidy of $8,000,000 a year still continues, and the Legion's British commander, Major General John Bagot Glubb ("Glubb Pasha"), was still in Amman last week as its "administrative" head...
...Have a heart, man!" protested Glubb. "Five-foot-six is only a little man like that," he said, reaching toward the floor. "I would say I'm about five-foot-nine...
...Glubb's stature among desert Arabs does not depend on his height. He won it by learning to speak Arabic fluently, by scrupulously observing their customs and courtesies, by being firm but smiling and unassuming. At meals he squats on his haunches with them, dipping greasy fingers into the communal dish, kusi, a mound of rice and sour milk topped with a roast sheep stuffed with rice and dates...
...Fears. Among the tales (most-apocryphal) which encrust his legendary name is one of a trip through the desert with several cars full of Legionnaires. One car turned over, killing two of the men. Soon afterward the party stopped for lunch at a Bedouin encampment. To show proper sorrow, Glubb sat for an hour before a steaming platter of rice and meat without tasting a mouthful, drying great tears on the edge of his khafiyah (shawl headdress). Then he solemnly kissed his hosts on both cheeks and drove away. Out of sight of the Bedouin camp, he opened...
Asked what he would do if the War Office sent orders contrary to Abdullah's, the man who serves two kings replied: "I am a British subject. I would have no alternative but to resign my command." Last week the British hoped that Glubb would not be forced on to the horns of that dilemma. If the little chess player's ambitions run away with him, say the British, they will immediately withdraw their subsidy, officers, Glubb and all, and cut off supplies...